


an essay on the sound of scratching claws upon car roofs

by silenceandtears



Series: Avatar Modern AU [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: ...so, Alternate Universe- Modern Setting - Freeform, Gen, Idk what the plot is doing, Inspired By Tumblr, Sushi!, Zuko just wants his cat back, and this, as many things are, have, i can't, is why, look stop judging me I've wanted to do a modern au forever, most of this was written at one am, nice things, what am I doing with my life, wow look at my non-existent impulse control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-30 23:19:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21436339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silenceandtears/pseuds/silenceandtears
Summary: There is a monster on the car and some angry-annoying guy speeding after them, and no one is validating Sokka's fears.Zuko just wants his cat back, okay.Inspired by a post on MuffinLance's Tumblr, and also Cheating at Pai Sho.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar)
Series: Avatar Modern AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1558525
Comments: 75
Kudos: 878





	an essay on the sound of scratching claws upon car roofs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).

_"Sokka,"_ Katara says, in her I'm-trying-to-be-patient-here-voice, "you're overreacting. There is not_ a monster on the car."_

Sokka pushes himself as far back in his seat as possible, shuddering. "You didn't see it!" he wails, and okay, maybe he _is_ overreacting. Just a little. But they didn't see it. They didn't see the way it's eyes had glowed, yellow and hungry-monster-ily, the way it's teeth had caught in the moonlight, sharp and white-

He realizes he's been saying this all aloud, and pushes himself harder into Suki. Between a monster who'll kill him now, and Suki, who at least won't kill him in front of Katara, he'll take Suki, _thanks_.

"Imagine those teeth covered in your blood," Toph says helpfully, from Suki's other side, and Sokka lurches away with a shriek as much as the seatbelt will allow. Suki and Katara burst into laughter. Aang manages to keep a straight face, because apparently he's the only good friend Sokka has.

_"One loyal hoe in the house,"_ Sokka moans. "I've been betrayed. _Betrayed."_

"Loyalty," Suki says, poisonously sweet, and oh no, Sokka has made a _mistake, _"is earned. You have not earned anything but pity."

Toph snorts- _"she's got a point, Snoozles,"-_and if it weren't for the fact that there is a _monster _out there right now, Sokka would _leave_. See how they survive without him!

"Need I remind you who planned this trip? If I left this instant, you'd all be begging for me to come back," he says anyway, but Aang, without taking his eyes off of the road, says, "I thought there was a monster? Wouldn't it be dangerous out there?"

Suki chokes on her water, and Katara, the traitor of a sister, _presses a kiss to Aang's cheek, _which, like, _ugh, _no, _why._

“Sassy Twinkletoes is the _best_,” Toph cackles.

"I hate you all," Sokka decides. He puts aside the very real danger of death for chewing them out. "You are despicable people who will be eaten alive for ignoring my warnings, and- _aargh!"_

_Scrrritch, _goes the car roof.

"Did you all hear that? _You all heard that, right? _Oh my god. We're going to die here. I'm the only one who can hear the monster, and you all laugh me off now, but when the monster _attacks_ and _eats us all,_ oh god, we're going to die in a bloodbath,_ I always knew I was going to die young-"_

"Ohh my _god,_" Suki says.

Sokka makes a whining sound. "Oh my god," he whispers.

_Clack, scratch, hhiisss, _the monster laughs.

* * *

Somebody, Zuko decides, is going to die in a bloodbath if he doesn’t get his cat back _this instant._

* * *

The clawing intensifies.

”We’re all going to die in our sleep tonight,” Sokka whimpers, keeping his eyes as wide as he can to watch out for _bloodthirsty monsters._

”Sokka,” Katara says, glancing back in the rearview mirror, “this was funny in the beginning, but are you feeling alright? It’s probably just sand and dirt.”

Aang blinks up, big innocent gray eyes wide and worried. “Sleep deprivation?” He offers uncertainly.   
  
“Typical masculine paranoia?” Suki suggests cheerfully.

”_Hey!_” Aang protests. 

Suki reaches forwards and pats him. “Not you, Aang.”

Toph kicks up her feet. “Well, _I_ didn’t see anything,” she yawns, and then somehow manages to elbow Sokka from _two seats over._

Flashing eyes in the darkness, tail lashing against the window-

“I cannot _go to sleep!_” Sokka protests, though his eyes are already growing heavy. “I must stand vigilant guard- wait. You’re _blind.”_

“Okay, you really need sleep,” Katara decides. “You haven’t fallen for that one in _years.”_

“He fell for it last week,” Suki corrects. “But yeah, get some sleep. I won’t kill you, if that’s what you’re worried about. Not while there’re still witnesses around.”

”You couldn’t kill me anyway,” Sokka mutters, and there are several synchronized snorts, like they _practiced _that. And Sokka does want to sleep, he really does. Five days of simultaneous camping and composing poetry can make even him tired. But-

_Snarl,_ the car roof reminds. The darkness is menacingly overwhelming. “It preys on sleeping human meat,” Sokka mumbles into Suki’s shoulder, and she laughs.

”Don’t you worry, I’ll protect you,” she says soothingly, and Toph makes a gagging noise.

”I’m _never _sitting next to you two again,” she announces to the world at large, and Sokka is tired-but-on-high-alert, and _not _because he’s terrified. Sokka does not get _terrified_. But as comfortable as Suki’s shoulder is, the creaks outside are definitely _not-human,_ and the _otherworldly laughter_-

Which was when the honking began.

* * *

Zuko’s tired, and frustrated, and _he just wants to get his cat and go home, okay._

But as much as he beeps, the other car’s not _freaking stopping, _like it’s being difficult on purpose. And. And Zuko does not appreciate that, because Sushi_ (stop judging him, he was young) _is the only one other than Uncle who stayed with him throughout the whole of his banishment until he finally opened his eyes, and Sushi’s never offered him tea when he didn’t _need_ tea or made him play Pai Sho. And once Sushi scratched Ozai across the face. So.

He starts shouting after them, because that usually worked with the Wani in the tea shop (why Uncle insisted on calling them the Wani instead of the employees, Zuko would never understand) but the other car just speeds up, instead of slowing down or _stopping, _like anyone else would do, and Zuko really doesn’t have time for this because inheriting his father’s weapons company and (trying) to reform it is exhausting and he has to be up at four tomorrow-

But Sushi must be terrified up on the roof of a _speeding car,_ what is that driver _thinking, there’s a cat on your car and you’re not even slowing down-_

* * *

Toph’s never heard car honks sound this angry. She’s kinda impressed.

”_What _is this guy’s _problem,” _Snoozles mutters blearily, but at least he isn’t hallucinating evil monsters anymore.

”Ooh, listen,” Toph grouses, because even if she appreciates how the guy can put this much anger into a honk, he's being really, _really _loud, “he’s started shouting now, too.”

“Can anyone hear him?” That’s Sugar Queen’s voice. “What on earth- Aang, _slow down!”_

"I'm _trying!" _Twinkletoes yelps. "But he's speeding up, and-"

"Has anyone considered," Suki says, very loudly, "maybe _stopping _and finding out what the guy wants?"

"Has anyone considered," Snoozles says, very miserably, "how even if the monster doesn't rip us to shreds, we're going to die because Aang drove us into a tree going too fast?"

Aaand they're back to the monsters again. 

This, it occurs to Toph, is going to be a very long night.

* * *

This, it occurs to Zuko, is the time that, if not for the other car, he could be back home and sleeping like he's _supposed _to be.

But no, the other driver just had to start- is he _running away_ from Zuko?

...He's definitely running away.

(Or driving away. _Why _would his tutors drone on about the properties of Lithium and not explain the proper terminology for a car trying to get away from you?)

"Are there any_ mature_ ways to handle the situation?" Zuko snarls to himself, imagining shoving propriety out the window and actually saying that to the other guy's face. "You have my cat, and show a _complete_ lack of self awareness by driving away with it, did you actually think I wouldn't notice? You're wasting my time _and _yours, don't you have better things to do than steal pets? If you want one, go to a shelter or something. Maybe _you _don't have anything to do with your time, but _I _have a world-wide company to run and _things to do, _and you are clearly committing animal abuse, you could have thrown my cat off and I could press charges-"

He stops, suddenly aware that there is something intrinsically sad about a twenty-year-old man monologuing (because no matter what he tells Azula, he'd like to think that he has enough self-awareness to know that he does monologue) about the safety of his cat and maturity.

Silently, he makes a list (because that's what his assistant-what's her name? July? January? One of the_ J_ months- is always on his case about doing) about things he's going to do tonight:

One: get Sushi back.

Two: shout at the occupants of the other car.

Three: go home and organize the paperwork and his notes for tomorrow.

Four: double-check what his assistant's name is.

Right. He can do this. He can.

(He totally cannot do this.)

* * *

Sokka buries his head in his arms. He's going to die. If Aang doesn't crash them, the monster will eat them, if the monster somehow miraculously doesn't eat them, Angry Guy back there will kill them.

"Aang," Katara shrieks over Appa's violent rumbling, "I love you, but you _cannot go this fast!_" 

"You're _agitating the monster, _Aang," Sokka moans, and then yelps as Appa practically flies over a bump and his head slams against the window. Sokka jerks away, because _window _means _monster _and _monster _means _death. _

"Do you all hear that?" Suki demands suddenly, looking up sharply from where she'd been calmly bracing herself against the front seats.

There's a moment where time slows and everything goes silent, like the moment before death when your senses begin to shut down, and then Sokka _does _hear it- a distant yowling, like that of a rabid cat. And snarling.

Aang slams down on the brakes, and Sokka almost doesn't register the backlash. He can _see _the enormous jaws slavering with saliva in his minds eye, claws reaching for Sokka-

"Oh my god," he whispers, horrified, into the dead, almost-except-for-hungry-snarling silence that follows. "Suki. Suki, do you have your knife?"

"Here," she says grimly, as something in the back of Sokka's mind reminds him to gloat about being right, later, if they survive this. "I go first?"

"Right behind you," Sokka whispers back. Suki clambers over him, and slowly reaches for the door. "Katara, my sister, no matter what I've said in the past, I love you."

"Oh my god, Sokka, _shut up," _Katara hisses furiously, and then adds, "I love you too."

"One, two, three," Suki breathes, and Aang makes a squeaking noise. She thrusts the car door open-

\- A wild shriek-

\- A spitting mess-

-And a voice behind them, shouting, _"What do you think you're doing?"_

* * *

There are many things Zuko was planning, but that girl's holding a _knife, _and she's _pointing _it at Sushi, so something blurs his mind and he's shoving them out of the way and grabbing Sushi and stroking her because _she _didn't do anything to deserve this mess of a day. 

"What," he repeats, "do you think you're doing? Are you all part of- some kind of sacrificial cult or something? Because if you are, then go find something _else, _this is _my _cat and you can't do anything to her."

There's a beat of silence, during which the knife-holding-girl very wisely drops her knife, and then finally one of the boys blurts, "that's a _cat?"_

"No, peasant," Zuko snaps, "it's a bloodthirsty monster. Of_ course_ it's a cat."

"Oh," one of the girls say. "Guess it wasn't out to kill us after all, Snoozles."

_"What," _Zuko says, summing up his life in one word.

"I'm really sorry," another one says apologetically, and Zuko's about to turn to her because she seems_ sane_, at least, but then the driver jump/flies over and squeals, 

"Can I pet it?"

There are many things Zuko was planning, amongst them what he was going to say to the driver, but all the plans dissipate and he blurts, instead, "Are you even old enough to legally drive?"

"I get that a lot," Bouncy agrees, and then beams. "I'm Aang! I'm sixteen, is that old enough to legally pet your cat?"

Zuko wonders, not for the first time, the exact moment his life spun out of his control and crashed down a cliff.

"Suki," formerly-knife-holding-girl interjects. "Sorry about the knife. Sokka here'd been talking about a monster for the last hour or so, and when we heard your cat shrieking we thought it was- well- that. Is your cat why you were yelling after us?"

"_Yes," _Zuko says. "Why else- oh my god."

"I really am sorry," the almost-sane one repeats weakly. "I'm Katara. What's your name?"

Zuko considers shoving them all into a tree and threatening them. 

"Zuko," he says instead, because he does occasionally try to be polite.

The short one makes a sighing noise. "Yes, very sorry, blah blah blah, you have your cat back now, can I have your phone?"

Okay, no, Zuko decides. They're just- emotionally constipated. Somehow more than him, which was- not known to be possible, until now. But they don't seem to have any bad intentions? So he hands his phone over, and after a bit of flailing around, she finally gets her hands on it, and she passes it to the one Zuko assumes is Sokka, and before he realizes what's happening he's telling Aang, "There's a shelter next town over, if you- if you're sure you want a pet?"

Being hugged, it occurs to him, is very much like being enveloped in a flying whirlwind of yellow hoodie.

_"Aang," _Katara says.

"Oh my gosh, thank you!" Aang beams so brightly it almost hurts Zuko's eyes. (Eye?) "I've wanted a lemur forever, and- Sokka, could you add my number, too?"

"Are you," Zuko says, once his throat unclogs itself, "are you- adding your numbers to my phone?"

Sokka shrugs. "It's their thing," he says, handing Zuko's phone back. "Sorry about your cat. Have a nice day."

_It's twelve am,_ Zuko almost says, but he doesn't, and then- and then they’re _gone, _Aang with one last squeeze and the short one with a punch (they’re so _weird_) and Katara with an apology and Sokka and Suki waving over their shoulder, leaving Zuko standing with Sushi purring in his arms and covered with dust from the car.

He pats Sushi on the head. "People are so weird. Cats are better," he reassures her.

(But he still puts their contacts on his Favorites list, and he tells himself it's because it's what Uncle would want him to do.)

* * *

He wakes up with a text from Aang.

_I got a lemur! I'm naming him Momo, but Sokka says that's stupid, what do you think?_

* * *

"I've literally never seen you smile, boss," June (it's June, right) says.

Zuko falls back into a scowl.

June snorts.

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I'm going to sleep at a normal time tonight and get all my work done!  
Also me: okay I finished my math project great I'll just write a chapter-length one-shot in one sitting and IGNORE THE THREE OTHER PROJECTS I HAVE
> 
> I wrote this at like twelve am and didn't go back to reread it so  
okay bye I actually have to sleep now I hope it wasn't too terrible! I'll probably go back to edit it soon so


End file.
